Morning Links: A struggle for lights on the Orange Line bike path, and more Playa del Rey road diet madness

Last week I was forwarded an email from Robert Cable, asking for help solving a seemingly intractable problem getting help with a dark and dangerous section of the Orange Line bike path.

He gave me permission to share this in hopes that someone who reads it might be able to point him to some person, anyone, who could help get lights installed and make the Orange Line bikeway a safer and more practical alternative for people who commute after dark.

And after getting bounced repeatedly between Metro, the city, the county, the local councilmember’s office, and back again.

My name is Robert Cable. I had the good fortune to meet with several LAPD officers over the past two days. They suggested I reach out to you after I told them how I tried to get some lighting installed on a short stretch of the Orange Line Bike Path but was completely shot down by my district reps.

Most of the path from Chandler to the 405, and then west of White Oak has lighting. There is one area just west of the 405 at Haskell to Balboa (but mostly to Woodley) that is unlit and gets extremely dark at night. The path is set back from Victory, rides thru areas of thick trees, has low visibility and feels unsafe for many reasons. Additionally, along with the lack of lighting, lights from oncoming cars makes it even more difficult to see.

Originally, after reaching out to District 6 for help, Lauren Padick told me it was metro’s jurisdiction. Metro responded that it was city. After going back to Padick with that information, she immediately responded, and I am talking two minutes, with this,

Robert,

“There is no existing poles besides Metro’s. At this point, the City would be unable to install lighting.”

Since then, I learned that a colleague of mine who also commutes by bike, departs the bike path at that section and rides in the street. Well it turns out that one night, he was hit by a car over there as a direct result of feeling unsafe on the path.

So, who can help me? Who can I contact about this? There is no reason that a small, less then half mile stretch of path shouldn’t have the same lighting as the rest of the run. Coincidentally, I believe this to be the same area where the Rabbi whose family sued and settled a multi million dollar suit with the city, was hit. Lastly, Hotchkiss thought that solar lights, like those installed in Glendale would be a good solution.

National

A Colorado newspaper says maybe bikes should be taxed at $25 or $50 a year, with the funds dedicated to building and maintaining bikeways. Except an annual fee — especially that high — would only serve to discourage more people from bicycling, and result in more unused bikes remaining in garages.

A Houston driver describes the attack by a bicyclist who allegedly scratched the man’s car with his bike, then reached in and beat him through an open window. While violence is never the answer, something tells me there’s another side to this story; a violent attack on a totally innocent driver just doesn’t add up.

This is what heroes look like. A Chicago firefighter is retiring after 27 years on the job, and 25 years after starting a program that promised kids a refurbished bicycle if they came in with a report card showing good grades and perfect attendance — boosting attendance at a local school from 20% to 92% in a single year.

5 comments

Regarding the lighting along the Orange Line Bike Path through Sepulveda Basin you need to contact Parks & Rec but of course it will just fall on deaf ears (trust me I tried). Up until recently I had been biking the Orange Line from its conception and it’s a clusterfuck of different agency running it (none of them seem to really care either).

The area in question is inside the Sepulveda Basin which falls under Parks & Rec, the area that (bike path that is) goes under the 405 is under Cal-Trans and just pass that is LA City. Metro only takes care of what’s inside of the bussway.